"Enough! For the sake of your own selfish desire, you have turned all three realms into a sea of blood and misery. If you truly hate me that much, then take my life. Why drag so many others into death with me?" Li Luoning shouted.
"Master, no... no... stop... please stop..."
"Li Luoning, you really are noble, aren't you? Playing the immortal, playing the hero, taking every role of the good man for yourself. Then what am I supposed to be? Your life? I do not care for it in the least. What I enjoy is seeing you alive, seeing you suffer, seeing you helplessly watch as everything around you that belongs to you disappears, crumbles, and is destroyed. I want you to watch them all die for you!"
Li Minghan's expression had gone numb in a way that was almost sick, yet the hatred in his eyes could not be hidden. He rolled his neck once, then pointed toward Yun Qingyi in the distance.
Mie Xingzhe, who had already passed out, suddenly snapped his eyes open and lifted his head. Demonic energy wrapped around his whole body. With a stiff, unnatural movement, he picked up the dagger from the ground and, without the slightest hesitation, drove it straight at Yun Qingyi.
"Qingyi!" Following Li Luoning's line of sight, horror dawned in his eyes far too late.
The dagger in Mie Xingzhe's hand pierced through Yun Qingyi's body. The force behind it was so great that nearly half his hand followed the blade into Yun Qingyi's body.Yun Qingyi had been completely unguarded. He only saw the terror in his master's eyes as Li Luoning shouted toward him. Then he felt a sharp pain strike from behind.He lowered his gaze and looked at the dagger that had already gone through his body.
Yun Qingyi raised one hand and gently touched Mie Xingzhe's cheek. His eyes still carried the same old tenderness as always. Then his strength gave out. His body swayed, and he fell with his eyes closed.
When Li Luoning cried out hoarsely and rushed over like a madman. With a wave of his hand, he removed the barrier around the two of them, caught Yun Qingyi before he hit the ground, and struck Mie Xingzhe away with one palm.
"Mas... Mas...ter..."
"Qingyi... I'm here, I'm right here. You'll be all right." Li Luoning's voice trembled uncontrollably. Just as he was about to use his inner power to protect Yun Qingyi's meridians, Yun Qingyi weakly lifted a hand and pressed it down.
"Mas... ter... Nian... nian... pro...tect him... keep him... safe..." Yun Qingyi a tear slipped silently down and landed on Li Luoning's sword. Then he closed his eyes.
"Qingyi!"
Li Luoning could no longer hold back his grief. Choking with sorrow, he pulled Yun Qingyi tightly into his arms.Tears fell from his eyes beyond control.
Though they were master and disciple, they were not far apart in age. They had cared for each other and stayed by each other's side for many years. They were not family, yet they were closer than family. They were called master and disciple, but were more like true kindred spirits. He had liked hearing him call him Master, and had long grown used to seeing his busy figure in the courtyard every morning. He had loved discussing medicine with him, and had trusted him with all the great and small matters around him. His presence had become the one bright light in what had once been a plain and colorless life. He had saved his life, but he, in turn, had saved his heart.
[Why had all this withering begun? Qingyi still remembered the old grove. Branches drooped beneath the night moon, and fallen leaves gathered around Luoning.] Li Luoning remembered the two lines of verse from when he had named Yun Qingyi. Back then, he had only spoken the first half aloud. He had never told him the second half.
Li Luoning held Yun Qingyi's lifeless body tightly in his arms as memory after memory flooded his mind.
Feeling Yun Qingyi fading away bit by bit, Li Luoning, with unbearable reluctance, gently laid him down on the ground. Then, from his chest, he drew out the inner core that had once belonged to himself.Looking at the inner core floating in his hand, Li Luoning closed his eyes tightly. A tear slipped silently from the corner of his eye. He drew a deep breath and pushed the inner core back into his own body.That had originally been his own inner core, formed long ago from half of his golden core. Now at last it had returned to its rightful place.
"Heh, looks like the Mozhi Ghost Umbrella poison really is useful. A pity it can only be used once. Still, I have to say, I'm quite satisfied with the result." Li Minghan glanced carelessly at Mie Xingzhe lying nearby.
Li Luoning slowly rose coldness in his gaze made him seem like a completely different person. Red-gold light slowly gathered in his palm and formed a long sword.
"From the day you were born, you were the vessel of the Moon Shadow Pill. That was fate. But to willingly let the Moon Shadow Pill feed on power and drag you into darkness—that was your own choice. No one ever forced you to be like this. Everything you are now, you brought upon yourself. What does it have to do with anyone else? What does it have to do with me? And what does it have to do with all the living beings of the three realms?" Li Luoning's voice burned with surging fury.
"What? That old man Li Shen never told you? The Moon Shadow Pill and the Chixi Pill were born to sustain and oppose each other. One of us was always meant to kill the other. Oh, I nearly forgot—he never had the chance to tell you. Because he died. I killed him." Li Minghan said.
Li Luoning fingers clenched so tightly the joints turned white, and his body trembled faintly with rage.
"Li Minghan—my disciple's murderer, my father's killer—pay with your life!"
"So now you're angry? "
Li Minghan avoided every one of Li Luoning's strikes with insulting ease, as if he were waiting for something.
"Shut up!" At this moment, Li Luoning felt nothing but rage—rage that had swallowed his reason whole. He wanted to tear the man before him to pieces at once. Yet the more furious he became, the more clearly he felt the burning inside his chest.
"Oh, what a pity about that eldest disciple of yours. I'd say you cared for him very much, didn't you? Otherwise, why would you have hit that younger disciple unconscious without mercy?"
"Shut up. Shut up."
Li Minghan moved just a fraction too slowly in one turn, and Li Luoning's sword aura cut a shallow line across his face.
Li Minghan drew back and stood a little farther away. He lifted a hand and touched the wound on his face, then looked at the blood on his fingertip and clicked his tongue.
"You have this face too. Don't you feel bad seeing it cut up like this?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Minghan lunged at Li Luoning again.
Li Luoning was clearly fighting with all his strength, but Li Minghan still evaded every move with absurd ease.
"You still haven't awakened? Without the Chixi Pill helping you, you are no match for me at all." Li Minghan spoke carelessly, his hands folded behind his back, using only the movement of his body to dodge Li Luoning's sword.
Li Minghan kept speaking.
"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you—your little disciple whom you knocked unconscious is poisoned with my Mozhi Ghost Powder. If he isn't cured in time, then after tonight his meridians will all break apart and he'll die. Then again, I suppose it won't matter. You probably won't live to see tomorrow anyway."
Li Luoning's mind inner power fell into chaos. A rush of heat surged in his chest, and the burning in his inner core grew stronger and stronger. Blood burst from his mouth, and he dropped from midair, landing on one knee and breathing hard.
"Still not awake? I'm running out of patience." Li Minghan said pointedly.
Qingyuan and Yue Ruling struck from behind Li Minghan together, but with a single flicker of movement he dodged them with ease.
"Stop wasting your effort. You may be the war god of Liaoyin Immortal Realm, but you are nothing more than Situ Fanzhi's guard dog. Did you really think you could fight with me?" Li Minghan said arrogantly.
"And what if I join them?"
The moment he heard that familiar voice, Li Minghan's pupils widened sharply. His hands froze for an instant as he turned his head back in stiff disbelief.
Just in time to meet the solid, powerful hand of Shentu Zhuojia coming straight at his face.
The slap sent Li Minghan stumbling back two steps. He spat the blood from the corner of his mouth, then finally looked clearly and saw Shentu Zhuojia standing there.
"Brother, what are you doing here?" Li Minghan lifted a hand and wiped the blood from his mouth.
"You killed my father, stole my mountain, you have stirred up this war.As Demon Sovereign, how could I possibly stand aside and do nothing? Here and now, I sever that bond with you. From this day on, there is no more feeling between us." Shentu Zhuojia said.
Li Minghan felt as though someone had torn a hole right through his chest. His body swayed slightly. Then he asked,
"Brother... do you really mean that?"
"The day you killed my father and devoured his demonic cultivation, I stopped being your brother."
The faint smile on Li Minghan's face slowly darkened. Coldness rose in his eyes as he said in an icy voice,
"If that is how it is, then today all of you will go to hell with me."
Li Minghan flung his arms wide. At once the winds changed, demonic storms rose, sand and stones flew, and no one could keep their eyes open. Above the sky, black demonic energy slowly gathered, and thunder roared inside it.Li Minghan brought the vast mass of demonic force crashing down toward them as he laughed madly.
The barrier they had raised was being crushed lower and lower, and clear cracks had begun to spread across it.
Li Minghan stared wide-eyed and laughed wildly. His white teeth, smeared with bright blood, looked disturbingly twisted. He pushed harder still, and the pressure pressing down upon the people trapped below grew even heavier, close enough to crush them in the next moment.
Then Li Luoning suddenly saw a figure dart in front of him. Mie Xingzhe, somehow awake again, stood before him and blocked Li Minghan's power with all his strength. A burst of brilliant golden seals exploded outward, and the demonic energy gathered above everyone's heads vanished in an instant.
The force of Mie Xingzhe's Floating Light Golden Seal jolted Li Minghan hard enough to injure his inner power, and blood rose hot in his throat before spilling from his mouth.
"You troublesome brat. Still not dead." Li Minghan spat bitterly. He swung the Yunyi Maojie, wrapped in demonic force, straight at Mie Xingzhe.
"Watch out!"
Li Luoning threw himself instinctively in front of Mie Xingzhe. The Yunyi Maojie struck him directly across the back from top to bottom. Flesh split open at once, and blood sprayed into the air.
"Master!" Mie Xingzhe cried out and rushed forward to catch Li Luoning.
Li Luoning felt the sharp pain in his back sink into his body with icy coldness. Supported down into a sitting position, he began to use his inner power to stabilize himself. As Mie Xingzhe helped his master sit, he caught sight of the human-bone short sword lying on the ground.
"You hurt my master and killed my senior brother. I'll take your life!" Mie Xingzhe snatched up the dagger and rushed straight at Li Minghan.
"Nian! No..." Li Luoning tried to stop him, but it was too late.
Li Minghan's demonic cultivation was profound, while Mie Xingzhe had the Floating Light Golden Seal protecting him. For a time, neither could gain the upper hand. It was not because Mie Xingzhe's skill was so extraordinary, but because the Floating Light Golden Seal was the natural counter to the twin pills. Even if Mie Xingzhe could not land a real blow, the power of Li Minghan's Moon Shadow Pill could not truly harm him either.
As Li Luoning tried to use inner force to protect himself, he suddenly felt the cold energy driven into him by the Yunyi Maojie being slowly absorbed by his own inner core. In its place came an even stronger heat.
[The twin pills between us were always meant to sustain and oppose one another.]
Li Luoning suddenly remembered Li Minghan's earlier words. In that instant, realization struck him. His eyes flashed, and he rose sharply before flying toward the two men still locked in battle.
Shentu Zhuojia saw it and followed after him. Qingyuan was about to join them too, but Hua Qiuyuan stopped him.
"This is between them. If the War God does not want to drag Liaoyin Immortal Realm into it, then it would be best not to interfere."
Even with the three of them fighting one against Li Minghan, they could only force the battle to a draw. But Li Luoning seemed to have noticed something. Every time he took on the power of Li Minghan's Moon Shadow Pill, the burning inside him became clearer and clearer.
Then, in the middle of the fight, the human-bone short sword Mie Xingzhe threw swept by Li Minghan's neck. Li Minghan had tilted his head carelessly, expecting to dodge it. But the wound left by the blade sent a searing pain through him that was almost impossible to bear.
"Hss—where did you get this sword?" Li Minghan clutched the wound and hissed through the pain.
When Mie Xingzhe saw that the sword could actually injure Li Minghan, he attacked him even more fiercely.
"Master, this human-bone sword works on him. Use this against him!" As he spoke, Mie Xingzhe reversed his grip and threw the sword to Li Luoning.
Li Luoning seized the chance and caught it. Working together with Mie Xingzhe—one attacking, one defending—and with Shentu Zhuojia assisting, they launched a combined assault on Li Minghan. Before long, Li Minghan's body was covered in wounds.
After several dozen exchanges, Mie Xingzhe finally found his opening and drove his strike hard toward Li Minghan's left side. Li Minghan had originally managed to block that sword, but Li Luoning's follow-up strike arrived immediately after. Li Minghan felt a coldness stab beneath his ribs, followed by violent, tearing pain. The human-bone short sword buried itself deep into the left side of his body.
Looking at Mie Xingzhe's face only inches away, Li Minghan knew that the Floating Light Golden Seal could only fully take effect when there was a certain distance between its host and the threat. So he suddenly gripped both of Mie Xingzhe's arms tightly as the latter still held the sword. His gaze turned fierce and ghostly as he stared at Mie Xingzhe.
"It seems your master never taught you how to use the Floating Light Golden Seal."
The moment the words left his mouth, black-green fire spread from Li Minghan's hands where he gripped Mie Xingzhe's arms. The flames ran up Mie Xingzhe's arms and quickly wrapped around him.
Mie Xingzhe felt as though his bones were being split apart. The pain was so great he screamed. But Li Minghan held his arms in an iron grip, and all he could do was watch helplessly as the black-green demonic flames slowly swallowed him whole.